Appearance and Reality

“It’s amazing how things can be so different from how they sound.” Variations on that statement appear throughout the book. Chapter 2, the first entry in Torey’s “Creed.doc” file, starts with Torey’s discomfort at the contradiction between the Bible story of Christ’s crucifixion and the artistic portrayals of Jesus on the cross. All the artistic renditions show Jesus draped with a loincloth, but the Bible says he was naked on the cross. This is not a new disturbance for Torey, but something that bothered him well before Creed disappeared. When he’d pursued it, the Reverend told him the truth was less important than the impact truth would have on people.

That troubles Torey, especially in the context of the church’s prohibition on lying, and here’s this big lie.

Torey had made assumptions about Chris Creed, based on his outward...